UA Students Inspired by Musician’s Visit Fuse Art and Music for Exhibit

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — University of Alabama art students will exhibit works inspired by the music of renowned jazz composer and musician Anthony Braxton through Feb. 27 at UA gallery in the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center in downtown Tuscaloosa.

The exhibit, “Anthony Braxton: Falling River Music Exhibition,” coincides with Braxton’s weeklong residency at UA Feb. 18-25.

A reception and concert will be held Monday, Feb. 23 from 6-8 p.m. at the gallery and will feature the Anthony Braxton Falling River Music Trio.

Students in Pete Schulte’s Advanced Concepts In Drawing class created works inspired by the musical scores and audio works of Braxton. Students in that class−Ausharea Adams, Mitchell Griest, Brittany Gunnells, Ali Hval, Patrick O’Brien, Jennifer Ocampo and Seth Saunders−also curated the exhibition, which will include 35 of Braxton’s visual music scores consisting of large, colorful drawings alongside other notational symbols.

Schulte is a UA assistant professor of art.

“Each of us has taken one of Anthony Braxton’s unique visual scores and one of his auditory compositions and made works in response to it,” said Griest, a junior from Brighton, Michigan, majoring in computer science and studio art. “We are considering his larger body of work, as well, but we are paying special attention to the pieces we were assigned individually as jumping off points for our own pieces of art.”

Braxton’s musical career spans more than five decades. His many awards include a MacArthur fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, 2009 honorary doctorate from the Université de Liège in Belgium, 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and 2013 New Music USA Letter of Distinction.

He is also a 2014 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master.

The exhibit and weeklong residency are sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and The University of Alabama’s New College, College of Arts and Sciences, Office of the Provost, School of Music, jazz studies program, Blount Undergraduate Initiative, Honors College, University Programs, and the departments of American studies and gender and race studies.

For a full schedule of Braxton’s weeklong residency at UA, visit http://www.sonicfrontiers.ua.edu/upcoming-events.

The University of Alabama Gallery offers a year-round schedule of exhibitions of artistic works, artifacts, textiles and more from permanent collections held by UA, as well as works by faculty, students, and guest artists and designers.

The UA Gallery is located at 620 Greensboro Ave. in downtown Tuscaloosa. It is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and the first Fridays of the month until 8 p.m. For more information, phone the gallery at 205/345-3038 or phone 205/342-2060.

The gallery is part of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships and Goldwater Scholarships.